Pyongyang does not show “interest” in dialogue with
Washington

Ⓒ POOL/AFP – Lintao Zhang – | US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Chinese
President Xi Jinping in Beijing on September 30, 2017

North Korea has shown “no sign of interest” in talks with
the United States, the US State Department said on Saturday.
“communication channels” with Pyongyang.

“North Korean officials have shown no sign of interest in
talks on denuclearization,” US diplomatic spokesman Heather
Nauert said in a statement, citing “several channels for
communicate with officials within the North Korean regime “,
which had already spoken earlier in the Chinese capital the
Secretary of State.

Rex Tillerson said the United States was “probing” the will
of the Kim Jong-Un regime to initiate discussions on its
nuclear program.

“We are asking questions, we have lines of communication
with Pyongyang, we are not in complete darkness, we have two or
three channels of communication with Pyongyang,” he told
reporters in Beijing , following a meeting with Chinese
President Xi Jinping.

But Washington now asserts that this attempt at dialogue has
remained unanswered, against a backdrop of verbal escalation
between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim
Jong-Un.

– ‘Superheated situation’ –

Rex Tillerson, on the other hand, is the chanter of
“peaceful pressures” on Pyongyang, through tougher
international sanctions and working with China to tighten the
grip around the North Korean regime.

Shortly before the remarks of the head of the US diplomacy,
a North Korean state organization responsible for external
propaganda had launched new insults on Saturday to Donald
Trump, calling him “old psychopath” in “suicide mission to
provoke a nuclear disaster that will reduce America into an
ocean of flames “.

In the past few days, the White House host described North
Korea’s number one as a “rocket man” embarking on a “suicide
mission”, which had replied: “mentally deranged”.

This verbal spiral alarmed the
international community and re-emerged the specter of a North
Korean nuclear test in the Pacific that could lead to a
reaction by the US armed forces.

The US repeatedly reiterated that it did not rule out the
“military option” against North Korea, with President Donald
Trump brandishing even the threat of “total destruction” of
that country.

But senior US government officials acknowledge that military
intervention in the peninsula would be complicated and
perilous, endangering the South Korean population within reach
of the northern artillery.

Rex Tillerson was not eager to defend President Trump’s
tweets on Saturday: “The situation is a bit overheated at the
moment, I think everyone would want it to calm down.”

“If North Korea stopped firing missiles, it would already
calm things down a lot,” he pleaded. A possible military
intervention depends solely on Donald Trump, but “as far as I
know, the commander-in-chief has not drawn red lines,” he also
commented.

– ‘Progress’ –

Washington spoke openly about the effects of the new package
of sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council after a
powerful nuclear test in Pyongyang in early September.

While the United States was chastising China’s lack of
firmness, accusing it of not putting enough pressure on its
turbulent neighbor, they applauded the “progress” of the
Chinese authorities as they put the UN resolution to music.

China said on Thursday that North Korean companies based in
its territory should close by January. And the Asian giant has
confirmed that it will drastically limit its exports of refined
petroleum products.

“Enormous steps in the right direction,” said the US State
Department.

If China insists on “full” implementation of UN sanctions,
it is firmly opposed to any military intervention in the
peninsula and pleads relentlessly for a “peaceful” solution
through “talks”.

Beijing also defends the idea of ​​a “double moratorium” –
the simultaneous halting of the ballistic and nuclear tests in
Pyongyang and the US-South Korean military maneuvers: a
solution that Washington does not want to hear about.

Rex Tillerson met with President Xi Jinping and his
counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday in preparation for President
Trump’s first trip to China in November.

“I am convinced that his visit will be special, wonderful
and successful,” Xi said on Saturday, highlighting his
“personal friendship” with his American counterpart.